THE recent spate of wet weather has finally raised the level of the region's reservoirs, which were depleted after the long hot summer.

Yorkshire Water's reservoirs have risen for the third consecutive week and now stand just over half full at 52.8 per cent.

The rise of 3.7 per cent across the region was the largest weekly increase in stocks for six months.

According to the company, rain gauges situated at the region's reservoirs experienced 90 per cent of the usual rainfall for November.

Last week, an average of 35.7mm of rain fell across the county - the wettest seven days in Yorkshire since the start of July.

Richard Flint, Yorkshire Water's director of water business, said: "The consistent downpours last week resulted in reservoir stocks and river levels rising for the third week running, but they are still lower than normal for this time of year.

"In the last month, reservoir levels have risen by nearly 10 per cent, which shows the superb level of recovery that our grid system provides. As always, customer drinking water supplies remain unaffected."

Northumbrian Water said the dry summer had affected its reservoirs, but added that they had risen by seven per cent over the last two weeks.

A spokeswoman said: "We have asked our customers to be water-wise by taking showers instead of baths, but that's nothing out of the ordinary.

"We are not really comparable with other water companies because we are lucky to have Kielder in our area, so we don't envisage any hosepipe bans in the future."